POLITICAL ROUND UP

The aftermath Last week's local and regional elections produced few surprises. Those who were tipped to win, won. The only - mainly expected - upsets were in the regional government elections. In the Canary Islands, the Socialists (PSOE) ousted the main opposition party, Partido Popular (PP), and in the Balearic Islands, coalition negotiations were still going on at the time of writing in an effort to keep the PP in power. In Navarre, the Union del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) - the equivalent of the PP - got the most votes but not a majority, leaving the Socialists in a position to form a coalition with the other smaller parties. However, this is an exceptionally sensitive area. The Basque terrorist group ETA and its political wing, the banned Batasuna party, have made it clear they want Navarre to form part of an independent Basque state, mainly because it will give them a frontier with France. Polls show that most non-Basques would not like that. Now it looks as if Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero may decide against entering into a coalition with pro-ETA or pro-independence parties and allow the UPN to rule as a minority, which would dispel accusations that he wants to hand the region over to ETA. This would be the most sensible decision because when all the votes were in and counted, it turned out that the PP won some 166,000 more votes than the Socialists. It doesn't sound a lot now, but it could make a big difference next March. One newspaper extrapolated the voting figures and concluded that the PP would win the next election by 147 seats to 146 for the Socialists. The overall conclusion of most political observers is that Sr Zapatero should sit down and do some serious thinking especially as the people of the city he governs from - Madrid - gave the PP historically overwhelming majorities - for Esperanza Aguirre as president of the Madrid Community (regional government) and Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, who repeats as Mayor. In an effort to wipe the PP from the political map, for the past three years Sr Zapatero and his cohorts have been doing everything possible to make people believe that the PP is the Franco dictatorship in disguise. They are quick to point out that many PP politicos come from Franco-supporting families. What they fail to mention is how many of their own come from a similar background. They came up with the Historical Memory Law, reopening the old wounds caused by a civil war that ended 68 years ago. They have tried to make out that all Republicans were "good" and all the rest were fire-breathing, blood-thirsty monsters who enjoyed torturing little children to death. What they never mention is that it was tacitly agreed after Franco's death not to indulge in show trials of the dictator's supporters had been involved in atrocities for the simple reason that a lot of Republicans would end up in the dock too. For example, the man who led the Communist Party when it was legalised after Franco's death - Santiago Carrillo - was the commissar in charge of Madrid when 5,000 men and women suspected of sympathising with Franco were rounded up and shot. It must also be noted that Sr Carrillo fully supported the return to democracy and the monarchy, and was booted out of the party for his pains. Then we have Iraq. Joining the allies in the Iraq war was the biggest mistake former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar ever made. It was very unpopular with the Spanish people and Sr Zapatero made the withdrawal of Spanish troops his main commitment during the March 2004 election campaign. The day after he took over, he recalled the troops, and he's never stopped reminding people of this ever since. It had become so boring that just a few days before the May 27th elections, one of the allies who helped him form a government, Izquierda Unida general secretary Gaspar Llamazares, wondered aloud just how much more mileage Sr Zapatero expected to get out of the Iraq war. The same could be asked about the PP's "inability to come to terms with losing the March 2004 election" - which it had been tipped to win. Whenever the PP dares to criticise the government, which is most days, the first thing the PM or his spokesperson says is: "The trouble with you lot is you can't get over your election defeat". In fact, the odds were in favour of the PP until the morning of March 11th 2004, when bombs blew up several trains in Madrid during the rush hour, killing 91 people and injuring more than 1,700. The Socialists seized on the fact that the bombs had been set by Islamist not ETA terrorists to bring out the anti-war vote on Sunday, March 14th. What they never mention is that their followers attacked PP party headquarters in several major cities on Saturday, March 13th, a day on which all electioneering was prohibited in order to give people time to "reflect" on their vote the following day. All the pro-Socialist TV stations - that is, the majority - repeatedly showed images of the disturbances, which were encouraged by text messages that apparently originated in the party's headquarters in Madrid. These tactics have not helped Sr Zapatero. In fact they may even have been counterproductive. The same old song gets boring eventually. The big question now is: Will he be able to change his tune?

PP WILL DECIDE ON LEGALITY OF BANDERAS VILLA

Antonio Banderas's attempt to help the Socialist Party (PSOE) win the local election in Marbella might backfire on him. He confidently announced his voting intention just days before the March 27th election, which the main opposition party, the Partido Popular (PP) won with a resounding majority. Unfortunately for Sr Banderas it is now the PP which will have to decide whether his beach villa - declared illegal several years ago - will be among those to be demolished.

RICE VISIT SPARKS DEMO

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a her first lightning visit to Madrid last Friday for talks with Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos to restore ties between the two countries which have been frosty since Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq after he won the March 2004 election. But disagreements remain, notably over Cuba. While Ms Rice was visiting King Juan Carlos, Sr Zapatero and Opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish government was holding talks with Cuba on human rights on the island. When Sr Moratinos assured reporters at a press conference that he believed the US would one day agree with Spain's policy on Cuba, Ms Rice was heard to mutter: "Don't hold your breath." Apart from Cuba, the US has expressed anger about an arms deal between Spain and Venezuela's leader, Hugo Chavez, a man the US regards as a destabilising force in Latin America. Meanwhile, Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso complained about "indiscriminate bombardment" carried out by US and Afghan forces, that killed civilians in Afghanistan. Ms Rice blamed Taleban militants for hiding among civilian populations. She also said she would like to see Nato allies do more in Afghanistan, "and Spain is included in that list". A `policeman cuts the chains of youths dressed like prisoners at the US military base in Guatanamo, Cuba. They had chained themselves to the fountain in Plaza Cibeles to protest Ms Rice's visit to Madrid.

FRENCH PRESIDENT VISITED SPAIN

Nicolas Sarkozy made his first visit to Spain as President last week, although he has visited the country several times in the past almost as a native son - his wife Cecilia is the granddaughter of the famous Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz. During his meeting with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the main item on the agenda was how to breathe life back into the European Constitution, which the French voted against, and the Spanish voted for in their respective referendums. They also agreed to continue to fight against terrorism, most notably against the Basque terrorist group ETA, in which the French police have been so successful that ETA members are now seeking refuge in countries further afield, such as Britain and Italy. Mr Sarkozy also met his old friend, opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, before having a private diver with King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and other members of the Royal family.

CANDIDATES ASKED HEADS OR TAILS

When the local elections on May 27th resulted in 66 votes each for the Partido Popular and PSOE candidates for mayor of the tiny village of Carataunas in Granada province, the locals decided to toss a coin for it last Friday. PSOE candidate José Daniel Vigil, a farmer, chose heads, and the PP's Salvador Rodriguez, also a farmer, chose tails. And tails won. Neither candidate was very happy with the method but the alternative would have been to hold another election and run the risk of another tie.

PMS ALLIANCE MAKES PROGRESS

The Alliance of Civilizations - an initiative presented by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2004 - has cost 2.6 million euros to date, with Spain contributing one million. This covers the cost of three meetings of the working group of sabios (wise men) in Palma de Mallorca, Qatar and Dakar in Senegal. Despite the interest expressed by several Arab, African and Asian countries, only 12 countries have contributed money to the initiative so far. Last week Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the Alliance's first Forum will meet in Spain in November to study how the wise men's reports can be translated into specific activities to the turn the Alliance into a reality.

BASQUE FORM PARALLEL SOCIALIST PARTY

While the politicians were out on the hustings last week, a group of Basque intellectuals announced they intended to form a new party - the Basque Socialist Party - to counteract the Socialist government's policy of holding peace talks with the Basque terrorist group ETA, which many Basques do not agree with. The founders include two well known Basque philosophers - Carlos Martinez Gorriaran, an active member of the anti-ETA group "Basta Ya (Enough)", and Fernando Savater, a lifelong Socialist. The other founder member is Rosa Díez, the Socialist government's Euro-deputy, who is very critical of her party's attempts to make peace with ETA unless they group lays down its arms first. They said they hoped their parallel socialist party would have a nationwide coverage by the next general election in March 2008.

POLITICAL ROUND UP

Election background On Sunday, the Spanish people exercised a right that people under 30 take for granted - they voted in the municipal elections that are held every four years. They also elected their regional governments, except in Andalucia, Catalonia and the Basque country. While many Spaniards may not be aware of it, they are now enjoying the longest period of universal suffrage that Spain has ever known. Elections in the past were either very limited - by social class or gender - although universal suffrage was the norm during the Second Republic, from 1931 to 1936. However, that brief period of political freedom and experimentation ended in a savage civil war which was won by the rebels, led by Gen Francisco Franco. He ruled from April 1939 to his death on November 20th, 1975, which heralded in one of the most remarkable political renaissances that any country has ever known - the so-called Transition, during which two men literally schemed to give democracy to Spain. The personal histories of these two - King Juan Carlos and Adolfo Suarez - made very unlikely freedom fighters. Juan Carlos's father, Juan, was the true heir to the Spanish throne, but Franco couldn't stand him, considering him "too liberal". The dictator and the king-in-exile finally agreed to let the latter's son to be educated by the former in Spain, where he arrived in 1949, aged 10. Franco finally made him his official heir in 1969, believing that Juan Carlos would carry on his regime. Few men can have been so universally misjudged as this nice enough chap, who did not appear to be particularly intelligent or imaginative. But the bland exterior belied a penetrating and receptive mind. During the dictator's last years, Juan Carlos went to great lengths to smuggle the men he wanted to talk to into his palace outside Madrid - some arrived in the boots of cars and one, Javier Solana - then a Socialist activist in the clandestine opposition who what he is today - arrived on the pillion of a banker's motorbike wearing a crash helmet that hid his features. By the time Franco died, Juan Carlos had a very clear idea of what he had to do to restore democracy although his hands were initially tied by the constitutional system he had inherited from the dictator. He could only choose his Prime Minister from a list of three candidates selected by the Council of the Realm, a seventeen-man advisory body consisting almost entirely of Franco diehards. Juan Carlos reluctantly confirmed Franco's Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, as the best of a bad lot. Arias without Franco was a bit of a disaster - not even his fellow Francoists supported him. On July 1st 1976, the king called Arias to the palace for a dressing down and Arias - who had never enjoyed being PM - resigned. The king then literally gobsmacked the political establishment by choosing the relatively unknown Adolfo Suarez, whose name had almost surreptitiously been included on one of the three lists the king was entitled to ask for by his former mentor, Torcuato Fernandez-Miranda. The country's leading historian, Ricardo de la Cierva, made a comment that he regretted for the rest of his life: What an immense mistake! Suarez, aged 43, had been the youngest member of the Franco administration - a negative - but he was from an inoffensive middle class background, very handsome and always immaculately dressed - all pluses. He also accepted that the political reform necessary to turn a dictatorship into a democracy could not be partial or gradual. With the king's connivance, within three months of being appointed Suarez presented a political reform bill to the Cortes (Parliament) to introduce universal suffrage and a two-chamber parliament. The Speaker of the Cortes, none other than Fernandez-Miranda, rushed the bill through its committee stages to avoid any chance of it being watered down. He also arranged for the vote on the bill - during which each deputy had to stand up and say Si or No - to be broadcast live on radio and television. The government was expected to win the debate on the bill but when it was finally put to the vote on November 18th 1976, television viewers could hardly believe their eyes. One by one the members of the Cortes - generals and admirals, ex-ministers, bankers and local bigwigs - stood up and endorsed a bill that would put an end to everything they had spent their lives supporting under Franco. They had correctly gauged the mood of the country and voted for reform by 425 to 59, with 13 abstentions. In a referendum held on December 15th, 94% voted for the bill and just under 3% voted against it. Franco and his regime were finally and truly dead. Adolfo Suarez resigned in January 1981, unable to hold the political centre together and more or less abandoned by his closest allies, including the king, who felt he was no longer able to deliver vital reforms, such as the divorce law. In a recent poll to rate Spain's prime ministers since the death of Franco, Suarez - who now suffers from Alzheimer's and can't even remember that he was once prime minister - was given the highest rating by 35% of those questioned. Just over 10% rated current Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, trailing fourth after Felipe Gonzalez and José María Aznar. Perhaps the Spaniards are not so easy to fool as Sr Zapatero seems to think.

IN A BOX

How to vote Voting information is given in Muriel Pilkington's Political Round-up but here it is once again. If you registered at your local Town Hall before the end of February (empadronamiento) but have not received any information about where to vote, go along to the Town Hall this week, and ask them to check the list. If you should be on it but aren't, ask to be put on it which - by law - should be done immediately. You will then be told which polling station you have to go to. The other alternative is to appeal for help to the political party you intend to vote for. Most of the parties have at least one foreigner on their lists who will be only too happy to answer all your questions.

NOT ALL ELECTION CAMPAINGNS ARE STRIDENT

Not everyone in Spain will be deafened by the political parties' loudly broadcast propaganda this week. In some small towns in Andalucia there is hardly any indication that the elections are going on. In Parauto in the Ronda mountains, it's almost impossible to find its Socialist mayor, Carmen Jimenez. She's a teacher who is constantly on the move from one small school to the other, and the only other member of the council is her aunt. There are no election posters because eligible voters in the town's population 236 intend to re-elect them both. In Atajate (pop. 167) and Júzcar (185), both located in the Ronda mountains, the voting system is entirely different and much simpler. Each political party is allowed to put forward five names and voters will put their crosses against the five names of their choice, irregardless of political party, next Sunday. The five people with the most crosses will then form the municipal council. Would it were that simple in the rest of Andalucia.

IN A BOX

How to vote Voting information is given in Muriel Pilkington's Political Round-up (on this page) but here it is once again. If you registered at your local Town Hall before the end of February (empadronamiento) but have not received any information about where to vote, go along to the Town Hall this week, and ask them to check the list. If you should be on it but aren't, ask to be put on it which - by law - should be done immediately. You will then be told which polling station you have to go to. The other alternative is to appeal for help to the political party you intend to vote for. Most of the parties have at least one foreigner on their lists who will be only too happy to answer all your questions.

NOT ALL ELECTION CAMPAINGNS ARE STRIDENT

Not everyone in Spain will be deafened by the political parties' loudly broadcast propaganda this week. In some small towns in Andalucia there is hardly any indication that the elections are going on. In Parauto in the Ronda mountains, it's almost impossible to find its Socialist mayor, Carmen Jimenez. She's a teacher who is constantly on the move from one small school to the other, and the only other member of the council is her aunt. There are no election posters because eligible voters in the town's population 236 intend to re-elect them both. In Atajate (pop. 167) and Júzcar (185), both located in the Ronda mountains, the voting system is entirely different and much simpler. Each political party is allowed to put forward five names and voters will put their crosses against the five names of their choice, irregardless of political party, next Sunday. The five people with the most crosses will then form the municipal council. Would it were that simple in the rest of Andalucia.

POLITICAL ROUND-UP

Election Countdown The commonest question heard this past week has been "how can I find out if I can vote and if so, where?" If you registered at your local Town Hall before the end of February (empadronamiento) you can vote. If you have not received any information as to where, go along to the Town Hall this week - and even on election day itself - and ask them to check the list. If you should be on it but aren't, ask to be put on it which - by law - should be done immediately. You will then be told which polling station you have to go to. If there are any problems, go to the office of the political party you intend to vote for and they will only be too glad to get you on the list! Despite what some of the parties think, there doesn't seem to be any organised conspiracy to keep foreigners from voting. In the vast majority of cases, any omissions are due to sheer bureaucratic inefficiency. Two tips: take a copy of your empadronamiento with you and don't leave your visit to the Town Hall until election day. Election predictions Local and national polls indicate that the party currently in power in most of the big towns and cities will be re-elected so it looks as if the key to change is to be found in the smaller towns. Most local political observers seem to agree that the solution to local problems is to vote for the opposition on the premise that if a party is in power for only four years it won't have time to get too corrupt. It will also put pressure on the party to be seen to be doing something for local inhabitants if it wants to be re-elected. No doubt council officials who want to will still find a way to line their pockets but they will have less time to do so. While "corruption at the Town Hall" seems to be the big issue these days, according to the National Statistics Institute, the newspapers are more preoccupied by it than the average man or woman in the street. While most people go around shaking their heads at the brazenness of it, they're more worried about immigration, the housing situation, terrorism, or unemployment. Unfortunately, people everywhere - and not just in Spain - tend to shrug their shoulders and adopt the attitude: "Well, what else can you expect from them. They're politicians, aren't they." However, they are the people who are allowing the developers to go on building urbanisations in areas where the water supply is already a problem. These houses are built with foreign buyers in mind, even though all the figures indicate that because of a myriad of property-related problems, many foreigners are thinking twice before buying in Spain. They are also building golf courses when the figures once again show that foreign golfers now find Spain too expensive and are heading elsewhere, like neighbouring Portugal. Most of the small, new local parties, the Greens and Izquierda Unida (United Left, IU) are promising to rein in the developers and limit urban growth to the council's ability to provide basic services, so perhaps it's worth giving these parties a chance to prove they're not spouting a lot of hot air. This column has been sympathetic to the IU because of its anti-corruption stance but it blotted its copy book last week when its general secretary Gaspar Llamazares announced that the party's ultimate aim was "to create a network of IU local councils that will promote the Third Republic." The IU is basically made up of what could be called the losers of the Civil War - communists, anarchists and the more radical trade unionists - who don't seem to have realised that Spain has had a monarchy for hundreds of years, but only two Republic. The first one lasted less than two years (February 1873-December 1874). The second lasted less than six (April 1931 to July 1936) and the ideological squabbling and internal divisions led to one of the bloodiest episodes in the country's history. The IU has always talked about holding a referendum on the monarchy, which according to polls is accepted by three quarters of all Spaniards, while another 10% or so are indifferent. However, "serious" left-wingers (as opposed to the armchair variety) yearn for another Republic - when they would no doubt squabble and split into hundreds of factions until the military decide to put an end to it - a tragedy that has happened too often in Spain's history. The alternative Perhaps the time has come to give the new parties a chance. Most of them are very local issue-oriented, content to leave the bigger issues such as the abolition of the monarchy to Parliament. The Green Party, based in Fuengirola, is such a one and has nothing to do with the IU, although the latter in some areas is calling itself the IU-Green Party. Most towns, like Coín, will have a party calling itself the Alternative or the Citizens' party, whose manifestos concentrate on water supply, and improving everything from roads to health care. These parties are not to be sneered at. They've seen how their towns have been changed beyond recognition - and not for the better - by the so-called developers, usually in cahoots with the party in power, and seem determined to do something about it - if they get voted in. So please do your bit next Sunday and vote for the party most likely to do its best for your local community.

MADRID MAYOR ON GAY MAG COVER

Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, who belongs to the main opposition party, the conservative Partido Popular, became the first PP politician to appear on the cover of Spain's leading gay magazine 'Zero' this month. He is following in the footsteps of Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Izquierda Unida secretary general Gaspar Llamazares. Sr Ruiz-Gallardón, a practicing Catholic, has officiated at gay weddings in the city, flouting the official party line which does not support gay marriage. Zero editor Miguel Ángel López said he had heard the mayor was willing to be interviewed. But he told Sr Ruiz-Gallardon that he had to appear on the cover, thinking that he would not accept. Apparently the mayor saw the interview as a way to get his opinions across to the magazine's largely left-wing readership.

FOREIGN VOTES BEGIN TO FLEX THEIR MUSCLES

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According to the local press, at the last count there were 55 political parties set to participate in the May 27th municipal elections - 25 of them in Marbella alone. And many of these new, usually very local, parties are supported by more foreigners than ever before. In addition to the millions of European tourists who have been flocking to Spain since 1960s, drawn by the beaches, sun and affordable fiesta lifestyle, there are now an estimated 1.5 million expats from the EU living permanently in Spain, mainly British and Germans. Most of them are concentrated on the Costa del Sol, the Costa Blanca around Valencia and Alicante, and in the Balearic Islands. EU residents have had the right to vote and stand as candidates in local elections for more than a decade now, but until recently they have been keeping relatively quiet. However, they are now entering the somewhat turbulent waters of local politics in a big way, and in some areas they form the backbone of new parties, some of which have more expats on their lists of candidates than locally-born Spaniards. More than 300,000 European residents in Spain have registered to cast their ballots this year. Political observers are now asking themselves if this could be the beginning of an expat political revolution. One expat now running with a new independent party said he thought the mushrooming of expat-dominated political parties was a result of a lot of issues coming to a head: dissatisfaction with the way towns are run and especially corruption in urban planning. The latter has had a very direct impact on many foreigners living in Spain. The on-going property scandal in Marbella is just one of the more notorious examples. Thousands of people who own houses, many recently constructed along the coast, are in danger of losing their homes to bulldozers because they were built illegally. And under the controversial "Land Grab" law in Valencia, hundreds of home-owning expats have been forced to pay thousands of euros in fees to local developers for improvements in local infrastructure. Swathes of coastline from the Strait of Gibraltar to Alicante are dominated by ugly, half-built developments and both Spaniards and expats are saying: "Enough is enough." There are other basic issues, of course, like the rising crime rate, a demand for more health centres and better public transport for the expat-dominated developments. But above all, a lot of non-Spaniards think - rightly or wrongly - that the country's established political parties are ignoring them. They have invested a lot of money in their local communities through house purchases and paying taxes, but their economic weight is not reflected in their political representation - until now, when even the established parties are beginning to woo the foreigners. Many foreign residents have been reluctant to get involved in local politics because they fear the Spanish may resent it. However, a recent poll carried out by a national newspaper found that around 60% think it's only fair that foreigners should be able to vote. One mayor said he is accustomed to having a large population of non-Spaniards and does not see anything remarkable about the rise of expat-dominated political parties: "It's a good thing that the Europeans here are involving themselves in political parties, it will be good for the whole society." Spaniards have lived through lots of political changes over the last three decades - a transition from dictatorship to democracy, and membership of the European Union - and most are taking this latest political development in their stride. However, some are a bit concerned about the Spanish language skills of some expats. As one Spaniard said: "It's a good thing having them involved in the local politics, but an English mayor who can't speak Spanish?" He shuddered.

POLITICAL ROUND UP

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More of the same The municipal election campaign opened officially at midnight last Thursday, May 10th, and it was obvious from the declarations of the leaders of three political parties with national coverage - the Socialists (PSOE), the Partido Popular (PP) and Izquierda Unida (IU) - that they are being approached as a general election rather than a local one. Most people are probably under the impression that the campaign began weeks ago, as posters sprang up everywhere. However, that was the pre-campaign period during which the parties sorted out their voting lists in each municipality and went through the bureaucratic process of getting registered. Now they can tour the streets of every village, town and city in their cars, blaring out their promises through loudspeakers, and hold political rallies. At a midnight rally in Madrid last Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega appealed to young people to vote for the Socialists "to change the course of the cities and regional governments like they changed the course of the nation with their votes in the last general election". She mentioned the government's achievements since March 2004 - the laws on gay marriage, gender equality, domestic violence being prominent among them - and particularly stressed Spain's withdrawal from the war in Iraq. It was a combination of the train bombings in Madrid just three days before the election on March 14th - allegedly by Islamists protesting Spain's support of the UK and the UK in Iraq - and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's campaign promise to bring the troops home that brought out the anti-war vote - mainly young people inclined not to vote in a normal election - which gave the Socialists their unexpected victory over the Partido Popular. While the memory of the 191 dead and more than 1,700 wounded is still alive, it remains to be seen if the tragedy will have the same effect now. The Socialists have remorselessly beaten the PP with this March 11th stick during the past three years and there is the danger that the general public just might be getting tired of hearing the same old song. Meanwhile the PP is playing on another fear - the government's "giving in" to the Basque terrorist group ETA in its determination to get a peace agreement before next year's general election. Even as the government denies the charges and calls the PP liars, photos of ETA terrorist Inaki De Juana Chaos walking around the grounds of a hospital in San Sebastian have outraged more than a few Spaniards. De Juana was sentenced to 3,000 year's in jail for his part in the deaths of 25 people when he led the ETA commando group in Madrid in the mid-eighties. Thanks to legal loopholes, his lawyers managed to get this reduced last year. He then went on two hunger strikes and was finally sent to San Sebastian to recover from his "ordeal" a few weeks ago, before spending the rest of his sentence under house arrest for "humanitarian reasons". Unfortunately for the government, De Juana - allegedly on the brink of death after some 115 days on hunger strike - walked from the ambulance that took him from Madrid to San Sebastian, looking not very much the worse for wear. Since then he has left the hospital on at least two occasions with his girlfriend but after the press made a big fuss, he has since been confined to the hospital grounds. Last week, Unionist leader Ian Paisley finally sat down with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness to govern Northern Ireland after a peace process that became official with the so-called Good Friday peace agreement brokered by the then US president, Bill Clinton, in 1998. Sr Zapateros' critics seized on the event to drive home what they've been telling him for months - you can't reach a lasting peace agreement in a matter of months, as he seems to believe. And ETA itself warned last week that if its political wing, the banned Batasuna party, does not participate in the May 27th elections, "there will be a T-5", a reference to the December 30th bombing of the Terminal 4 (T-4) car park at Madrid's Barajas airport, in which two people died. While the other two parties are playing on old fears of war and old-new fears of terrorists, IU general secretary Gaspar Llamazares is concentrating on an even more topical scourge - urban corruption and land speculation. He has signed before a notary a commitment to guarantee that if elected, IU candidates will give priority to cleaning up local councils Sr Llamazares had previously offered to sign a "democratic agreement against speculation" with the other two main parties, without success, and is now offering to work with local ecologists and social groups to reach the IU's immediate aims: the use of renewable energies in public buildings, measures to save water and to make it obligatory for 50% of all new housing to be "protected", that is, economically accessible for the poorer sectors of the population. In the last local elections the IU got the third largest number of votes - 6% from nearly 1,400,000 voters, which gave it 2,198 councillors around the country. It will be interesting to see if its environment-friendly message will improve on that this time around. Next week: a closer look at the smaller local parties in Malaga province.

ELECTION CANDIDATES BANNED BY COURT

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The Supreme Court has banned hundreds of candidates from standing in local elections on May 27th in the Basque Country on the grounds that that they are connected to the armed terrorist group, ETA. The court ruled on Saturday that a little-known group, Abertzale Socialistak, was in fact a front for ETA's banned political wing, Batasuna. The court is still considering whether to ban another political group, Acción Nacional Vasca (Basque National Action) on the same grounds. Batasuna has been banned since 2003, but in 2001 won 10% of the vote in regional elections. The 246 supposedly apolitical "citizen lists" of Abertzale Socialistak were banned under a law preventing the continuation of a banned party. however, seven other independent lists will be allowed at the elections. ETA has assassinated nearly 900 people since it began its campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-west France nearly 40 years ago.

POLITICAL ROUND-UP BY MURIEL PILKINGTON

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Dirty tricks Both of the main parties - the Socialists (PSOE) and the Partido Popular (PP) - are making liberal use of their dirt sprays in the run-up to the local elections on May 27th. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is making flying visits to places where the Socialists need some extra back-up, like Marbella, where the PP is tipped to win. He visited the town last Wednesday to have his photo taken with the Socialist candidate for mayor, Paulino Plata, just hours before the police arrested singer Isabel Pantoja on suspicion of helping former mayor Julian Muñoz to launder his ill-gotten gains. Neither Muñoz nor Pantoja have ties - past or present - to the PP but the former mayor, and therefore by association his girlfriend, belonged to the party founded by Jesus Gil, who was elected mayor of Marbella in 1995. That was when the real corruption began and, according to political observers, the Socialists did nothing about it because Gil, a right-winger, was taking votes away from the PP and keeping them out of power. According to this convoluted conspiracy way of thinking, Pantoja's arrest was planned to stir up memories of all that right-wing corruption which in turn will encourage voters to opt for the Socialists, the Greens, or whomever, to stop the PP. It's a bit far-fetched but that's what the PP is saying, if only to impress upon voters that you can't trust those Socialists an inch. However, Sr Zapatero was clearly up to electoral tricks at the beginning of last week when he handed over the administration of Montjuic Castle in Barcelona to the city's mayor, Jordi Hereu. The castle is a powerful symbol for Catalan nationalists, who have been claiming total possession for decades. Francisco Franco ceded it to the city in 1960, but in name only. Its administration remained in the hands of Madrid until last week. It houses the Military Museum which will now be dismantled and the castle will become a Peace Centre, to be administered by the Catalan regional government, Barcelona City Council and the central government in Madrid. However, a basic stipulation in last week's agreement is that four flags will fly over the castle - the Spanish national flag, as well as those of Catalonia, Barcelona City and the EU. The Catalan nationalists have always said that only the Catalan flag should be flown at the castle. Sr Zapatero no doubt hopes that this generous gesture will encourage the Catalans to vote for the Socialists in the local elections, but they probably won't. They have too many Catalan options to choose from and they still remember how Sr Zapatero changed Catalan allies in midstream to get a watered-down version of the reform to the Catalan Autonomy Statute accepted. The Catalan Socialists have been steadily losing ground to the nationalists in recent years. In the last regional election, in November 2006, the Socialists lost five seats. The moderate nationalist party, Convergencia i Union (CiU), won numerically, but was unable to convince any of the other parties to help it form a government. CiU leader Artur Mas had very foolishly sworn that he would not form a coalition government with the PP, whose support had kept the CiU in power for more than 20 years until the Socialists won the 2003 regional election. The Socialists were able to convince their the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) to back them once again, despite Sr Zapatero's "treachery" in the matter of the Statute, which had particularly annoyed ERC, so they were able to stay in power. It will be interesting to see how well - or badly - they do in the May 27th elections. But the biggest dirty trick of all, according to the PP, is currently taking place in a Madrid courtroom where 29 Islamists, mainly Moroccans, are finally being tried for the March 2004 train bombings in that city. Some of the men were arrested shortly after the bombings and the rest were caught over the next few months. The PP has always insisted that the government was dragging its feet over putting them on trial and has always claimed that they would finally end up in court at some strategic time - like just weeks before the May 27th local election. The trial is not expected to end until October but the verdict probably won't be known until January next year, just two months before the next general election. The Socialist government has consistently used the M-11 bombings to undermine the PP, accusing the party of not having come to terms with its defeat in the March 2004 election. The PP was tipped to win but the Socialists very ably used the bombings to bring out the anti-Iraq war vote and surprised even themselves by winning. Sr Zapatero's more rabid enemies always refer to him as the "accidental" prime minister but the Socialists have always denied that the bombings had anything to do with their election victory. However, in a recently published book, one of the PM's former consultants claims that Sr Zapatero admits in private that without the bombings he wouldn't be where he is - something that three quarters of the Spanish population also believes, according to the polls. Next week: What the different parties are offering to do for you.

FOREIGN MINISTER RETURNS FROM OFFICIAL VISIT UN USA

Edition: 329

Spain’s Foreign Minister, Ana Palacio, has just paid a four-day official visit to the U.S.A., where she held talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell about Iraq and the situation in the Middle East, bilateral ties and U.S. relations with the European Union. Sra. Palacio and Mr. Powell described their discussions as “very positive”, although it is reported that the Spanish government differs from the Bush administration on various points including the role of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in finding a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Spain is therefore believed to be putting pressure on the U.S. authorities to view the situation differently. Whereas the U.S. and Israel believe Mr. Arafat is now irrelevant because he has proved himself unable or unwilling to stop terrorism, Spain believes he should be involved in the peace process as a reference figure, although not in the same governing role as before. The Foreign Minister was also scheduled to meet the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, Cesar Gavira, before she flew home, and was expected to stress Spain’s belief that the U.S. government should pay more attention to problems in Venezuela and Cuba now that the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts are no longer taking up most of its time .

PRIME MINISTER SUGGESTS PRESIDENT BUSH MAY INTERVENE IN GIBRALTAR DISCUSSIONS

Edition: 328

Spanish prime minister José María Aznar implied last week that U.S. President George Bush may intervene in the discussions with the British government over the future of Gibraltar. Although Sr. Aznar did not state whether Mr. Bush had already become involved in the matter or that he would definitely do so in the future, he did confirm that he had discussed Gibraltar with the American president, saying that he spoke about a lot of matters with political leaders and that after those conversations the other leaders acted as they considered appropriate. The Spanish leader denied, however, that he had sent Mr. Bush a letter on the 20th May asking him to put pressure on British prime minister Tony Blair over the Gibraltar situation.